The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met October 23-24, 2019. On the agenda for the 24th was a debriefing on the measles outbreaks in many states, most notably New York State. I wasn't able to watch the October 24 broadcast, because I was traveling. But suddenly on Facebook, there were tens of repetitions of this message (virtually identical):
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice completes the tri-annual meeting today. They announced they want to end all religious exemptions in the USA.
The public has 48 hrs after the hearing to voice their opinions. Medical tyranny or Preserve 1st Amendment Rights.
I was quite confused by this, because it's the The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, not Immunization Policy, -- in the United States, individual states, not the federal government, and certainly not a volunteer (if highly qualified) committee-- set policies on vaccines required for school entry.
I went looking for the source of the assertion that ACIP "was planning to remove all religious exemptions, nationwide.
I went looking, and I found it.
Let me explain what this is. ACIP broadcasts the meetings, including slides. So this is some kind of screen grab of one of the slides from the New York City Health Department's presentation, judging by the logo.
What could this possibly be referring to?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill [June 13,2019] ending vaccination exemptions based on religious beliefs [in New York State only], the latest attempt to address the growing measles outbreak, the worst the U.S. has experienced in decades.Cuomo said plugging the loophole should help contain the spike in measles cases in New York, the state hardest hit by the uptick in the contagious virus due to low vaccination rates in ultra-Orthodox communities.
But somehow, that morphed into "ACIP announced they want to end all religious exemptions in the USA."
I found it on the Facebook page of a woman named Jaclyn Gallion, who is on the board of an anti-vaccine organization called "Informed Choice Washington", and has some unusual ideas about psychological effects of quarantine and believes she has "a gut intuition as a mother that trumps an education,I know what's best for my child and I know my child better than anyone else."
I suspect that a blast went out to the "Informed Choice Network" with Ms. Gallion's interpretation, and people sprung into action.
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